Celebrate and Honor REFLECTIONS


by JENNIFER GUTHRIE, EDITOR


Major themes of this issue sur- round celebration and honor. We look forward to the celebration of Easter — Christ’s death and resur- rection and our own salvation! We


also celebrate the mothers in our lives, whether our own mothers or grandmothers, or the women in our lives who have become mother figures to us.


Love, honor, and celebration are important parts of


life. You can read more about how celebration of holidays is a good gift from the Lord on page 10.


The Easter holiday carries with it the monumentous


occasion when Christ chose to give up his life so that we could be saved from the depths of our own sin. We were on a path divergent from God, and yet God loved us enough to send to us the spotless lamb to cleanse us in His purifying blood. We are reconciled — made clean, a new creation — so that we can celebrate God and all He is, so that we can be in relationship with God once more. God is perfect, He cannot be with sin; Christ covered us and God no longer sees our sin, but Christ. And praise God for that!


If you would like to learn more about the history of


Easter and its traditions, make sure you check out A Brief History of Easter on page 8. If you would like to read a prayer of Easter, see A Vigil for Easter on page 14.


As we move past the celebration of Easter, we move


into the celebration of Mother’s Day in May. God blessed us with the gift of mothers. God blessed mothers with the role of carrying and bringing new God-knit lives into the world. God created mothers with the purpose of bringing forth life and discipling and molding their children so that they could grow to know the Lord. Jesus himself loved and honored his mother. In one of the recollections of the crucifixion, it is recorded, “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’” (John 19:26-27a). Even as he took his final breaths on the cross, when he was tormented by the pain of his sacrifice, he made sure that his mother was going to be taken care of. Such an impact- ful thought, that even in his dying moments, Jesus had a desire to take care of his own earthly mother.


To read more about Mother’s Day or being encour-


aged as a mother, check out Her Best Work on page 15. You can also read the Mother’s Day poem on page 24.


Blessed be the God & Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be


BORN AGAIN to a living hope through the resurrection


of Jesus Christ from the dead — 1 Peter 1:3


FELL W HI


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